I'm Brianne. I'm a homeschooling mom of one, continuously refining my methods and expectations. My current philosophy is to refrain from picking my child's path in life, but instead to give her the tools to read the map and choose her own.

About Me

Thursday, January 19, 2012

What's next?

I'm proud of myself for the work I did this summer getting our office/storage/junk room turned into a functional office and schoolroom. Literally it had been years since we'd used the room on a regular basis, and even then, it was pretty much just me, and a path to the computer through the boxes. Before I started, the entire room was piled at least waist high or more in boxes, discarded computer paraphernalia, and detritus from our other various "dash and stash" cleaning rampages preparing for guests in the other rooms. It took about 2 months because I chose to do it RIGHT this time, no stashing. Everything needed to be dealt with, filed properly, thrown away, or have a home decided for it. And it worked.

So we're considering remodeling our kitchen. It may or may not happen this summer, based on the state of our budget after our house refinances this month. But as excited as I am about that prospect, there's another project that's taking over.

The Basement. Not just the main rec room, which does need it, but the storage room, too. This room literally has been untouched except to be added to since we moved in. That means that 98% of what's in there can be donated or thrown out. This is a good thing, right? Well, yes, but there's that 2% of irreplacable things in there... photo albums buried in a box under mail from 1998. So I can't just take the boxes and toss them without looking through every single piece of paper. But there's stuff in there that I haven't looked at since college. I'll probably need a dumpster.

Plans for the storage room are fabulous. It will no longer be a storage room. At all. The only storage we're going to allow ourselves is underneath the stairs: Holiday decorations, sporting gear, tools, things like that. The storage room is going to be painted, a floor installed, mirrors at one end, and voila! a dance studio for the daughter and friends. However, we are keeping this a secret from Shannon. I have no specific timetable for this project, as it is very overwhelming. I cannot tell her what the plans are for the room as I remember what it's like to be 9 and waiting for something that is forever away. A nebulous forever would be even longer. So we are keeping our mouths shut. Today, I almost spilled the beans, though. Maybe I'm unable to start the project because I'm afraid of how big it is, but maybe if there *is* pressure from the small one, I'll have to do it.